Air of confidence at Lehigh

After three sub-.500 seasons of 5-6, 5-6 and 4-7, you might think the goals would be modest at Lehigh as spring practice begins.

But the Mountain Hawks were talking championship on Friday as their first practice of spring ball wrapped up.

Maybe it's a carryover effect from a very exciting and successful basketball season on South Mountain.

The confidence is genuine, however, and there are some reasons for it.

While they will miss a few guys, particularly Matt Cohen and B.J. Benning on defense, most of the key components of last year's team are back. And last year's team, despite its overall record, was competitive virtually every week.

Only a 21-point loss to national champion Villanova and a 14-point defeat to Harvard could be considered lopsided.

There were near-misses within the Patriot League against both Colgate and Holy Cross.

All of that said, mere morale victories this year would be unacceptable.

The schedule is brutal. Drake, Villanova, New Hampshire, Harvard, Princeton and Fordham (in its first year as a non-Patriot League team) comprise the out-of-conference slate of games.

There are six home games tucked in a seven-game stretch, which is good, but three straight road games at the end which is not so good, including the always much-anticipated trip to Fisher Stadium.

There's a sense, however, that something good is going to happen. The players, for the most part, love Coen. They are glad he and most of the staff is back.

And they're glad to have back Dave Cecchini, who played a major part as coach during Lehigh's golden era from 1998-2001, a four-year stretch in which the Mountain Hawks went 45-5 and won three NCAA I-AA playoff games. Cecchini, in his old role as offensive coordinator, seemed right at home on Friday.

But there's a lot of work to be done, a lot of players who need to get better and a lot of improvement to be made with the execution.

"It's wonderful to be back on the field," Coen said Friday night. "The attitude and enthusiasm was great. We have a lot of kids out there. We only graduated 12 and I think on the roster right now we have 77. Our numbers have been the best they have been in the spring."

As for how things are working out between old friends Coen and Cecchini, who everybody knows went for the same job back in late 2005, well, it seems like old times.

"We have a lot of respect for each other and are good friends," Coen said. "I knew it would be a seamless transition. We've been through this together before. Dave and I saw how things could turn around when we were on Kevin Higgins' staff. We won a league championship in Kevin's second year [1995] and then went through a 5-6 and 4-7 season before we took off [12-1 in 1998].

"Dave and I have always stayed in touch. We're excited to get him back here and I think he's excited to be here."

I imagine Lehigh fans, frustrated by three straight losing seasons, will hold their excitement for awhile.